Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Macrovision to Provide Games Piracy Update

Macrovision (Nasdaq:MVSN), will provide the interactive entertainment industry with the latest research into the depth and extent of the industry's piracy problem in two special presentations of its 'Hacker University' at September's games trade shows.

The 'Hacker University' initiative offers attendees a hacker's perspective on the piracy situation, using the latest research statistics to explain how pirates obtain code, the techniques used to strip copy protection from software and the financial benefits of thwarting the hackers and extending the period of protection.

'Hacker University' will be presented in two different venues: at European Developers' Forum ("EDF") on Thursday 2nd September in the Biz/Production stream at 17.00, and at European Games Network ("EGN") on Friday 3rd Sept. at 15.00. Both events are running at London's impressive ExCeL facility between September 1st - 3rd, and alongside the huge consumer exhibition Game Stars Live, which runs until 5th September.

The developers' session at EDF will present an in-depth look at some of the technical solutions possible using Macrovision's latest software hack protection technology. Using a case study, Macrovision will discuss the techniques which resulted in over three weeks of "crack free" protection during the worldwide release of a 'triple-A' title. According to Macrovision's research, 33% of the pirate game users admitted that they would have purchased legitimate copies if they were not able to obtain working cracks or hacks of a desired game within the first two weeks of the title's release. This represents a significant amount of potential revenues at retail to the game publishers.

The publishers' session at EGN will examine the scale of the problem and focus on "best practices" solutions which can provide longer protection for interactive entertainment titles. Research on consumer attitudes towards software piracy demonstrates the serious revenue threats to the industry when game cracks are easily obtained online.

"Hacker University will be of extreme interest to anyone in the games business, offering authoritative research and solutions to one of the industry's greatest threats," says Martin Brooker, Macrovision's European Director of Sales. "Macrovision will discuss some of the latest techniques in the field of copy protection, illustrating how software security can make a difference to all areas of the games business, generating additional royalties for developers, greater financial return for publishers and more money through tills for retailers."